Maybe I Miss You chapter 2
by dorkoftheyear112
Summary: Dana comes home, bette and tina go aat it, carmen and shane get a new friend, and jenny gets a suprise visit


Chapter 2

Shane's POV:

I walked in the door and set my bag down on the table, flopping down into one of the kitchen chairs. I pulled a cigarette out of my pocket and started to light up, but dropped my lighter when I heard someone come in from outside. I quickly shoved the smoke back inside my pocket, not noticing that it was sticking halfway out, and kicked the lighter under the fridge. I planted my feet on the edge of the table and tried to look composed as Carmen entered the room.

"Hey babe," She said, walking right over to the fridge. Shit, did she see the lighter? I watched her pull a bowl off the self and she sat down at the table across from me. "Don't you just love Jell-o? I mean, what other food jiggles like this? It's so much fun!" I shrugged, trying not to laugh. She could be random at times.

"Um…pudding?" I took a guess. I always liked to see what I could make into a joking fight. We could be walking down the street one day and start arguing about the color of a car. The fights usually result with me pinned up against said car, which I can't say I mind.

"Uh uh," She disagreed through a mouth full of the stuff. "One: it's not clear, you can't stick things in it and have them stay there. Like this one time when I was little, me and my mom were making some…yeah, go figure, a Mexican family making Jell-o, but anyways, we found Papi's false teeth laying on the counter because he always forgets them, and we put them in the jell-o. We had gotten half way through the bowl after diner before he realized they were in there." I burst out laughing. Carmen always had great childhood stories, I loved hearing them. It kinda sucked that I didn't have any to tell her, though…

"Sounds pretty funny." I said, grabbing a spoon and digging into the bowl with her.

"Oh, it was hilarious. He started yelling in Spanish, too. We were all just laughing at him." I grinned my little mischievous grin.

"You know what? We should totally try that on Jenny sometime." She laughed.

"Totally. Jenny's got a sense of humor, she could take it."

"You know I kind of feel sorry for her, having to deal with us all the time." Carmen raised her eyebrows.

"What do you mean us? I am a perfectly behaved angel."

"Really? Who's been feeding you those lies?" Jenny said as she walked into the room, sticking her tongue out at us. Carmen dropped her jaw in mock surprise and anger, then when Jenny had her back turned to set her keys down, Carm put a finger on the top of her spoon and let the jell-o fly into the back of Jenny's head.

"Oh, shit!" I said, literally falling out of my chair, partly from laughter, mostly because of Jenny's retaliation. She sprung for the table, knocking a chair over, plunged her hand into the bowl, and tossed a handful of the green stuff at Carmen's face. She let out a screech and dove under the table next to me.

"Hey! Wanna help your girlfriend out up there?" I just laughed at her, green jell-o dripping down her face. I reached into my pocket and brought out my cell phone, quickly snapping a picture of her enraged face. I was still laughing when she tackled me, tickling me until I couldn't breathe. When she finally let me go, I had just enough time to sit up before Jenny flung the rest of the bowl down under the table at us.

"Oh, fuck no!" I said laughing, and Carmen and I charged out from under the wooden surface, knocking Jenny to the floor. We were all still rolling around on the slippery, sodden floor when Kit came in.

"Now should I get a camera crew in here to film this, because I know of some crazy teenage boys who'd love to see it." She said, smiling from the doorway. That got our attention and we stopped scrambling around long enough to sit up.

"Hey, Kit." I said, glancing around at the mutilated kitchen. "We were just…makin' some Jell-o." She raised her eyebrows and chuckled.

"I can see that. Too bad you're not going to have any left over."

"Oh, it was worth it. I think we put it to good use." Carmen grinned, wiping a blob of the gelatin off the side of my face. She left her thumb on my cheek for a fraction of a second longer than needed. Jenny and Kit threw a glance at each other after seeing it.

"You know, I bet I can think of some other uses for this stuff." I looked Carmen in the eyes, smirking. "Um, you've got some…" I pointed to her face, being purposefully vague.

"Oh…where?" Se ran her hand along her face trying to find what I was (or wasn't) pointing to.

"Just…right there. I'll get it." I leaned forward, taking her head in my hands, and kissed her sweetly, savoring the taste of the sugary food mixed with her lips. Kit coughed and I pulled away, slinging my arm around my girlfriend's shoulder. "Sorry…"

"Thanks, hun." Carmen said grinning, looking at the floor.

All of a sudden, a golden blur came zooming past Kit and Jenny and barreled into us.

"Puppy!" We both shouted, grabbing onto the fluff ball.

"That's actually what I came here for. I found it outside of my apartment, and no one knows whose it is. I asked Bette if she wanted to look after it, but you know her these days. Work, work, work. No time to look after a cute little doggie." Kit shrugged, obviously annoyed with her sister. "So I thought I'd bring him over here, see if you guys wanted to-"

"Oh, Kit, we'd love to take care of him!" Carmen interrupted, running her hands through the dog's silky fur. After a moment she looked around at me and Jenny. "That is, if you guys are okay with it?" I just laughed and nodded, watching the dog lick the sticky candied floor.

"Yeah, I love dogs. I used to have one when I was little, but my dad made us get rid of it." Jenny added. "He said it was too much of a hassle, and that little girls should be more focused on their school work, not dogs." She lowered her voice and squared her shoulders as she said the last part, imitating her father.

"Well, if you guys want him, I'll bring in his bowls and food." Kit said, patting the dog on the head.

"What should we name him?" Jenny asked. Carmen looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke up.

"What about Tito?" We all laughed, and I held the dog's face in between my hands.

"What do you think, boy? You like Tito?" He broke free and jumped on top of me, licking my face. "Tito it is, then!"

Tina's POV:

"So I says to him, I says 'Tommy, if you want to dress up like a drag queen, I'm not going to stop you…but I'm sure as hell gonna try! Hahahahaha!" Christ, neighbors could be frightening. Mrs. Lansburry (I think that was her name), with her chewing gum and red, short, curly hair, had stopped me on the way to getting my mail. I was trying desperately to get away, but all of my attempts had failed. _If she tell me one more thing about her trainny grandson I'm going to have to rip her head off_, I thought. I'd been stuck here for at least 15 minutes, and now my leg was falling asleep. And I really wanted to get over to Bette's before she left for work. I needed to see her. Maybe if I did it would remind me of why I can't fall completely into self pity. Maybe if I just saw her face-to-face one more time it would give me the strength to tell her how I felt.

But if this crazed lady didn't stop story time soon, I'd miss her and wind up trashed and on the couch watching Springer re-runs before 10 p.m.

"…and so he tells me he's bringing his 'boyfriend' over for dinner the next night, and I says 'your father is not going to like that!' Ya know? And so he goes-"

"Excuse me, can I borrow her for a minute?" _Wow! Someone saved me, at last! And that someone would be…_

_ Bette. What was Bette doing here?_

"Oh yeah, of course! I'll talk to you later, sugar." She finally turned around and left.

"Ugh, thank you! I was dying trying to act interested in 'transvestite story of the week.' She wouldn't shut up!" She didn't even crack a smile.

"She did seem a little eccentric to me."

"Eccentric? Ha! You don't know the half of it." She let a small grin shadow her perfect face. I had to drag my eyes away from her to keep from pinning her to the wall right there.

"I'm sure I want to know." I laughed, brushing a few stray hairs out of my face.

"So, um…watcha here for?" I thought maybe, just maybe she had wanted to see me.

"Mail." She held up a stack of white envelopes and I felt all my hope drain from me slowly. I should have known better. "Can I come in?" She gestured towards the closed door I was leaning on. _Ah, shit. _

"Actually, I was just on my way out." I made my best sorry-can-it-wait? Face and shrugged.

"Okay, well I'll just set these down in there and we can both get on with our lives." I nodded down at the floor, pursing my lips. I mouthed an 'okay' and slowly opened the door. Normally a girl wanting to see my apartment was a good thing, but not in this case. I hadn't bothered to pick up anything from the night before, so it looked like it did when Alice stopped by this morning.

"Wow, Tina, I love what you've done with the place." She said looking around, sarcasm dripping from her voice. I felt like telling her to shove it, but I didn't want to get into a fight with her. Not today. I just stood there dumbly and nodded, like I'd just taken a bullet. She set the mail down on the kitchen table. "It's a bit small, don't you think?" I bit back a snarky comment.

"It's just temporary. I'm looking for something bigger, maybe a 2 bedroom for when Angelica's over." Bette's eyes widened. That wasn't good.

"And when would Angelica be over? Because she certainly isn't coming _here_." She spit the words out with a venom I'd rarely seen.

"Well you don't intend to keep her from her mother forever, do you?" I asked, feeling the heat rising to my face.

"I am her mother. Her only mother." She put her hands on her hips and took a step forward, challengingly.

"Fuck you, Bette!' I said with a shock, not quite yelling yet." What other lies are you concocting to tell our daughter?"

"I would never lie to _my_ daughter."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes! I obviously care about her more than you do."

"What? Bullshit, Bette! Who gave birth to her!"

"Oh, come on, Tina. You haven't cared since the beginning! You didn't even want a black donor!" Both of us were yelling by now.

"That wasn't why I was upset! You didn't tell me! anything!" I whispered the next part, dropping my arms to my sides. "Why can't we just talk?"

"Because you had to go 'dicking' around!" She shook her head and stormed out, slamming the door behind her. I sunk to the floor, head in my hands.

"Fuck."

Alice's POV:

I inserted the key, turned the knob, and slowly opened the door. Actually, I was humming the Jaws theme song and creaking the door open inch by inch.

"Alice! Would you just open the door?" Dana laughed, causing me to break out in giggles, too.

"Alright. But I'm telling you, suspense is the way to go." I stepped inside and flipped on the light, grateful that I'd taken the time to clean the night before. "Home, sweet home. Or something like that." She walked in past me, sitting down on the couch and hugging a pillow.

"God, I've missed this place." She said thoughtfully, looking around the living room. "I think I was here more than I was at my own place. I don't see one thing that's changed, either." I saw that she was staring at the pictures of us two on the mantel. I smiled. I'd missed her being here all the time.

"Oh, new candle." I pointed to the green apple scented candle sitting on the window sill. She laughed and nodded.

"I like it."

"Me too." My voice softened and I came around to sit down next to her. "I think it belongs here." She gave me a confused look.

"Because it matches the carpet and walls?" I shook my head.

"Well, yeah, but…because it's got little candle friends, and it's own spot, and someone to take care and look out for it."

"Al? We're not talking about a candle, are we?"

"No." We stared at each other in silence for a while. Then a gurgling noise sounded, and we both erupted in laughter. "Hungry?" I asked

"My stomach seems to think so." I grabbed the phone book and opened it up.

"What do you feel like?"

"I don't know. Anything but hospital food." She made a disgusted face.

"Yuck." I sympathized. "Okay, first thing my finger lands on." I closed my eyes and touched a spot in the book. "Chinese it is."

"Sounds good." She glanced at the clock and grabbed the t.v. remote. "Oh, the tennis match it almost on!" She squealed. I finished ordering the food and sat down next to her.

"You're going to be back out there soon." I reassured her, noticed the sad look in her eyes. She nodded.

"I know." I took down the blanket that was hanging on the back of the sofa and threw it over us, as she scooted closer to me to get under. "Al, it's freezing in here."

"I know. The air conditioner is broken." She raised and eyebrow at me. "Meaning I can't turn it off." She laughed and laid her head on my shoulder.

"I've missed it here."

Jenny's POV:

I'd always wondered why the beginning was the hardest part of writing a story. At least that's what everyone else said. I'd always thought tying everything together at the end and finishing up was the hardest. It would never com out smooth enough. And if I didn't get one kick ass, smoothed out story soon, I'd be sleeping on a park bench. At least I didn't have to pay for Max's rent anymore, not since he got that programming job.

"I sighed, closing the laptop and plugging it into the charger. Maybe tomorrow I'd be hit with a sudden burst of brilliance. Ha-ha, pretty unlikely. I walked outside to sit on the steps just as a navy blue pick-up truck came to a stop in the driveway. I watched with curiosity as my old roommate walked up to me.

"No fucking way!" I laughed, getting up to hug the shaggy haired blonde. "It's so good to see you!"

Well? Am I not brilliant with the cliffhangers? I know I hate them as a reader, but as a writer they're mad fun! Ah, you probably know who it is anyways.


End file.
